One of my goals all along is to have as 'clean' an engine compartment as reasonably possible (meaning to be the least bit 'stinky' as possible), and to that end I routed the valve cover breather to the air box.



Picked up this nice stainless steel 5/8 bulkhead fitting -


...secured it in the airbox below the filter because I didn't want the engine intake air draw to be 'competing' with the breathers' intake air draw - probably inconsequential but whatever -


...and clamped on a simple filter just to keep debris out -


So now any valve cover 'inhaling' will come from the filtered clean air, and any 'exhaling' will at least be captured in the airbox...and such vapors should get drawn into the air cleaner and burned...which should help keep things less 'stinky'. I can't imagine it'll hurt...

Along the same vane, I came across some info stating that the Snipers run best with a 'fixed orifice' PCV valve. Many PCV valves...including the OE Mopar one I (was) using...have a variable orifice (and variable rate) based on the spring and plunger under variable vacuum (throttle) loads, but, there are many many many threads talking about how the 'variable' PCV valves can make a Sniper's ability to precisely meter the idle control quite difficult...and the solution from every reputable source including Holley tech and EFI Sys Pro is to use a 'fixed orifice' PCV valve. I am very surprised I'm only just now hearing about this, and it is not mentioned in the instructions anywhere. I only came across it when I was asking EFI Sys Pro about my gas tank vapor hose being routed to the secondary manifold vacuum nipple (no problem there BTW).

A fixed orifice PCV is just as it sounds - no spring-loaded plunger valve, just a permanent, single, small hole, in most cases I've read the hole is to be 0.100", or juuuust under 1/8" (0.125), although I'm told 1/8" is plenty fine so - the main issue being so long as the orifice size doesn't change. I can buy a simple fixed orifice PCV valve...but they're for a Chevy (of course) and bigger than the 1/2" Mopar valve cover grommet I have (of course).

So, I cracked apart my plastic PCV valve, tossed the plunger and spring, filled it full of JB Weld, clamped it back together, and drilled a hole through the epoxy just under 1/8", and stuck it all back together this morning. Problem (allegedly) solved.

Makes me wonder how much grief this issue might have been giving me the whole time with the 440 and the 4bbl Sniper... :unsure: ...

Standard Mopar PCV valve -


...gutted -


Filled with JB weld, drilled just under 0.100", and 're-assembled' (glued together) -


Meanwhile, as best I understand, this is the correct diagram for the front vacuum ports on the 2300 series 2bbl Snipers (and back of the 4500 4bbl units) -


- Sam